WHAT *ACTUALLY* KILLED GRUNGE? (It wasn’t Courtney Love)

What killed grunge? It wasn't just the death of Kurt Cobain IMO:
* The rise of grunge with Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Alice In Chain, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam
* The star power of Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, Chris Cornell, Layne Staley, Courtney Love and more
* How grunge bands helped shine a light on punk, hardcore and indie bands like SSD, Poison Idea and Bikini Kill and riot grrrl
* How grunge killed hair metal overnight
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0:00 Intro
1:41 "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
5:08 How grunge killed hair metal
9:16 When grunge took over pop culture
11:34 How it helped punk, hardcore and riot grrrl
13:09 Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and "fake grunge"
16:17 Kurt Cobain's death
18:48 Grunge's legacy

[@ThePunkRockMBA]

Join my Discord! discord.gg/dpKTrW9Q4R

[@mattjones1992]

Paint my chicken coup

[@EvaFull]

As someone who was a teenager in the Midwest during this era, I can say that GRUNGE was my gateway to so many other bands that I wasn’t aware of outside of the rock spear I was raised in.

[@thabugman9433]

Wow that’s hilarious how you talked about montly crue but yet you showed a picture of Def Leppard. Smdh thought you knew it all.

[@thabugman9433]

@@SchopenhauerVsCamus I used to love to hear him talk but as these videos go on and on it now grown to dislike him and this video has made me unsub to him. He just thinks he is Jesus himself and knows it all and if your not on his side he makes you feel like your shit.

[@SchopenhauerVsCamus]

@@thabugman9433 I love most music. Grunge, glam, electronic, rap, whatever.

[@baglewagle5859]

"WHAT *ACTUALLY* KILLED GRUNGE?" Heroin.

[@Capronice]

Totally.

[@Capronice]

I always liked the hippy look. Ripped jeans and sleeveless shirts. I was like that in the 80s and still in 2021 I still dress the same. No long hair . I am bald . I loved metal but the hair spray and make up was a turn off. Kiss did it right however.

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

@@Capronice Extreme metal kinda rejected 'the look' well before grunge did. Look at old thrash metal and death metal bands, they mostly dress pretty normal. T-shirts and jeans.

[@leemperor44]

Ozzy : pathetic

[@Kcutthth]

Hahahaha before I watched the video I swear I said the exact same thing.

[@UnvisibleINK]

"What actually killed grunge? But first, I wanna mention my merch..." pretty much nailed it.

[@joshingtonbarthsworth631]

Ha. Perfect.

[@balung]

You Tube Generation.

[@robotbjorn4952]

I'm sure the Irony is lost on Mr. Presenter.

[@jonaskragt3006]

hes gotta be joking right? lol

[@AS34N]

Lol grunge killed itself. But this comment was fucking hilarious 🤣

[@samod7550]

Nevermind actually knocked MJ's Dangerous album off the top of the charts when it came out. I think that perfectly highlights how impactful and important that album was.

[@latentsea]

Dangerous is a work of art. 10 million spentvto create. The album cover is also a work of art. Michael was a musical genius, his sense of rhythm was impeccable. Nice guy too.

[@deltab9768]

True. Then again I was around for Fear Innoculum pushing Lover off of #1. As you can expect, one finished 110 places behind the other in the year end chart... Gauging the commercial success or cultural impact of an album is surprisingly hard, and can't be done based on any one chart metric.

[@YBM2007]

and what album knocked Nevermind off the charts? ^

[@ebythebeach]

sure did

[@halloweenjack95]

But it was alread out for weeks tho. Still impressive

[@PapaTaurean]

I was a teenager in the 90s and Grunge quickly became my favorite music. I am still a fan of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden and it was great because it helped me transition to other genres of music that inspired Grunge.

[@paranoizehfx]

So awesome! Check out our Music

[@cwhsnh7420]

I once heard someone say "Watching Alice in Chains unplugged was like watching someone sing at their own funeral.", and that hit hard.

[@aaronclift]

Still one of the best live albums of all time.

[@nicholasromig5506]

that's a great way to put it. same for Nirvana Unplugged, it was like, less than six months before he was dead. those videos were still in rotation. horrible.

[@mell0wdem0n]

that’s some heavy truth

[@mwilliford1982]

Agreed - but that's my favorite album of all time.

[@robwalsh9843]

Even with Layne's goof ups, that performance was a deeply emotional experience. In my opinion, the best unplugged along with Nirvana and Eric Clapton

[@JMoon089]

I still think Layne has one of the all time greatest voices in all of music. Not just rock.

[@robwalsh9843]

Layne was one of a kind.

[@persistentlypathetic6820]

Possibly the greatest in my opinion

[@julianar.5668]

Agreed

[@joannamey4150]

He had a unique voice.

[@llm4187]

Cornell had a incredible voice,but Layne low range was spine chilling.

[@ronalddonlogin]

I was 16 yrs old when Nirvana blew up and I can say that everything changed literally overnight. In jr. High I was really into hair metal but by the time I went into high school I, and everyone around me were bored and stuck in a rut with the music out there. When grunge came out we not only dressed different, we thought and felt differently. We felt like we were finally being heard through this music. Before this, rock stars and their lifestyles felt unattainable and outrageous. At least to our adolescent selves these guys felt authentic and real. Mainstream killed so much of that amazing and stripped down feel. Trying to make something that was so anti- everything become cool and the way to be. We wanted this colossal wave to be for us, to be our own; not for the media and mainstream to try and latch on to it like a parasite. But they didn’t kill grunge, Kurt died and no one wanted to go on with it. I still can feel what I felt on that day he died.

[@brandonhammill8048]

You're 100% correct about the artists using their platform to promote their influences, their peers & the stuff they were into. Krist Novoselic took every opportunity to mention Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Melvins, Soundgarden etc during interviews. Everyone was so supportive of each other.

[@agdgdgwngo]

It's one of the best parts of Nirvana IMO. There is a list somewhere of Kurt Cobains top 50 albums, most of it pretty obscure and most of it really good. Stuff like the Vaselines and the Pastels are my favourites. Just kinds weird off kilter Scottish indie pop.

[@stewartdowouis9218]

I find myself often in the position of “old guy trying to explain the impact of grunge on EVERY FUCKING THING” to kids. Now, I can just direct them to this video.

[@beemaster666]

In 8th grade I was a loser than grunge became popular and everything changed. Funny thing I never liked Nirvana much but I often say Nirvana changed my life even though I was never a fan. Skating, hardcore, being dirty became cool and I was ahead the curve. I went from weird kid to kid that knows all the weird music and people wanted to know where I got all my skate company clothes and band shirts. The early 90s were nuts

[@megarural3000]

Dude, totally gonna to the exact same thing, thanks for pointing it out.

[@egregiousqueef7781]

^^ this old guy used to play Final Fantasy with his friends on Nintendo ("NES classic" that is) while listening to either Vanilla Ice or Nitzer Ebb (we were also big fans of Nirvana and 120 minutes). Memories are clear as day. Turned 13 in 1990. We were at Lollapalooza 92 and 93. Interesting side note on the 1992. If you are familiar with the band Front 242 (we as teens were very into the industrial scene), Layne Staley came on stage during "Religion" and sang with them. It was awesome.

[@THE_LILITH_VERSE]

Kids dont know. What glam metal hair metal and glam punk is these days what u mean people are dum. I got my music from my family 80s and 90s rule the rest after those years suck

[@jakebeaudrie]

I'm 48 and have a 16 year old daughter. When she discovered "grunge" it was just as impactful on her as it was on me when I was 18. The music (the good stuff) has never lost its relevance or felt dated. As someone who lived thru this as a 18-23ish year old, I think you pretty well nailed it. Nice work once again!!

[@mariawesley7583]

So glad your daughter discovered grunge. My 21 year old nephew recently discovered Nirvana and bought me their Unplugged album on vinyl for Christmas. It almost made me shed a tear.

[@hathaway.1166]

Yo I discovered grunge last year when I was into hip hop/trap stuff(16M) now I'm more of a Alt dude but man, these are just something

[@DigitalBath742]

I found my 11 year old daughter listening to Pearl Jam's Ten. It was a proud moment.

[@K0sm1cKid]

To be fair: it's prolly because she had a great musical influence in the form of her father. 😉 I'm only 25. My dad showed me a lot of cool music, and named me after Layne Staley. It was inevitable. Haha

[@petrinafilip96]

Man, I just recently got into Alice in Chains and honestly Dirt gotta be one of the best albums ever recorded. Also, if you count Siamese Dream as a grunge album, also one of the best ever.

[@Digitalhunny]

I just _love_ the story that Kurt Cobain's mother tells, of the very 1st time she heard their album 'Nevermind' sitting in her living room. She asked the boys if they were _really, truly_ ready for what was about to happen to them? She _knew_ it was amazing & unlike anything she'd ever heard before & that this was gonna be IT for them. This was gonna make them all _huge,_ rock stars... whether they liked it or not.

[@johnaaron37]

The key word here is STORY.

[@Digitalhunny]

@@johnaaron37 Hey, gobble up that positivity wherever & whenever you can get it. Do you not know this is the internet?🤣🤣

[@ligmaballs2022]

​@Digitalhunny given how she treated Kurt during his teen years make me more inclined to believe that she didn't really give a shit about his music and especially Nevermind AT ALL. After Kurt died, there was a sense of 'Oh, we knew he was a rockstar from the start, we knew he would be successful' that kind of stuff. I was like, nah bitch, you used him and his sister as pawns in your divorce, don't try to act like you were with him all this time

[@JavierCastillo-vc8ih]

I can personally attest to that shift. In mid 1991 I went into the military. Total isolation while in boot camp for 3 months. Before I left everyone in my peer group were long haired and wearing parachute pants and into the heavy metal glam rock scene. I came home near the end of 91 and just like that they all were not into that anymore. It's like a switch was flipped and it felt like a different world. Many have cut their hair and all were not wearing the heavy metal t-shirts and parachute pants anymore. For me the shift was very abrupt and mind blowing. Before I left, heavy metal was cool, come back and now it wasn't.

[@JP-1990]

These days, when a celebrity dies, kids just photoshop them onto a picture of bright sunny clouds.

[@pip7967]

They did that for Scott weiland and Chester Bennington. Both I'm a huge fan off

[@bgmzy]

Lol that’s some true boomer perspective…look at the reaction to Lil Peep’s death

[@Pelanances]

@@bgmzy Who?

[@BulletPhase]

Can't believe he liked this comment

[@sillythygoose]

Grunge was an effort to bring back the feeling and passion of 70s rock. What we got instead was something much grittier and darker

[@robwalsh9843]

It was essentially a blend of heavy 60's/70's rock with punk, post-punk and art rock elements. Soundgarden were frequently compared to Black Sabbath, for example.

[@jamesburkjr2803]

@@robwalsh9843 I thought AIC sound more like Sabbath the Soundgarden

[@ECL28E]

An extension of the hippie-movement; swap out LSD with heroine.

[@jadedheartsz]

Grunge started to feel kind of phony after a while, Steve Albini said as much. It's that kind of movement that could only happen in a decade like the 90s where not much of anything happened, after the 2000s though I just can't take all that angsty whining seriously anymore. Nu Metal at least was more interesting through it's mix of hip-hop and use of sampling in many of its bands.

[@robwalsh9843]

@@jadedheartsz Grunge felt phony when all the wannabes came into the fold, that's something that everyone agrees upon, including grunge bands themselves. Also, a lot of nu metal was very whiny and way too many bands were being really unoriginal and borrowing everything from the Korn/Ross Robinson playbook.

[@Tom-nc5qv]

Us "watching the self destruction" of these people for entertainment unfortunately hasn't ended, Chester Bennington is a prime example of that. Back in the day we all loved his lyrics for they're raw emotion, now I can't help but hear his cries for help.

[@ericluchon5401]

Grunge music was such a creative anomaly. Where as Soundgarden and AIC brought soul and heart to their music which inspired some already established metal bands to realize heavy sounds can be achieved by slowing down, drop tuning, and authentically singing your pain.

[@rsolsjo]

"Crazy how old this looks now, feels like the 90's was ten years ago" My brain: it was 30 years ago 😳

[@AnthonyRecenello]

Yup

[@AMPProf]

Lies it was yesterday!

[@JesseNothing33]

@ippos_khloros Damn, I've never even thought of that. Crazy,!

[@robwalsh9843]

I'm now boring kids with stories of how awesome the early 90's were the way my parents' generation bored me with stories about how awesome the late 60's were. Achievement unlocked!

[@andthoseotherguys]

@@robwalsh9843 HAHAHA yeah. I find myself doing that too. Only, my kids realize how everything sucks now. Music, movies, shows, etc. And if you notice, there's a flock of teens listening to 90s music more than modern. So, I think that speaks volumes over our parents music. Of course The Doors, Beatles, Violent Femmes, Zeppelin and all the others I'm forgetting...still rock. Sorry for the ramble.

[@brettcooper3893]

Always has amazed me how short a time the cycle was for grunge was, considering how influential it was and has been to this day.

[@chuckhoyle1211]

The grunge era was, pretty much, completely synced to when I was in college (92-96) and it was great, while it lasted. The mortality rate of rock frontmen was staggering at that time.

[@toddwilson7895]

Energy like that ,by it's nature, burns out faster than average. The Seattle musical influence is still very relevant. Lads now are interested in that era from a music standpoint. That whole scene epitomizes "Burning the candle at both ends, I burns so bright. But does it have enough to make it through the night?"

[@niemand262]

Big music labels can't make money from kids who dress in jeans and ratty old flannel. Moreover, the oligsrch's can't have kids hearing harrowing songs about the evils we face. They need us listening to messages that degenerate society, leading kids into gangs, drugs, violence, and risky sex.

[@ronalddonlogin]

Look at the Beatles. Still the most influential band ever but they weren’t even together for a decade since they landed in the us.

[@crackawood]

yeah he's wrong.grunge was alive and kicking in 94. superunkown, vitalogy, purple. the death knell was actually 96. or maybe 95 after alice in chains self-titled

[@mercy4us]

Soundgarden dropped superunknown in 1994 so it was still very relevant. Especially considering that was their most successful album.The pumpkins dropped Mellon Collie in 1995 which we could argue whether it’s grunge but it’s definitely the alternative rock sound and that album hit number one. Point being the alternative rock scene was still hitting hard through at least 1996.

[@zachrizzo6525]

Third Eye Blind/Blink 182/ Eve 6/Matchbox Twenty came around with the PopRocks that kind of ended grunge in 1997 give or take

[@Kondomonium]

Thank you for bringing up the smashing pumpkins, I feel like everyone leaves them out of the conversation either because they are British or post-cobain. I truly do believe they fit the grunge mold, and they show that grunge still existed in mainstream thought throughout the 90’s

[@nicolas.grisanti]

Yeah, to me grunge really died in 1996, after Soundgarden broke up, off course the death of Kurt was the fatal hit, but Superunknown was huge, maybe the last huge album of grunge (Nevermind, Ten, Dirt and Superunknown), as much i love Down on the upside.

[@curtissmythe7099]

@@Kondomonium they're not British

[@robwalsh9843]

@@Kondomonium Smashing Pumpkins are from Chicago. Bush were the British band who went for the American grunge sound and were more popular in the US than the UK.

[@The-Mediator]

Grunge and alternative artists looked, behaved, and dressed just like us and our friends back in high school - that’s why we related and loved them so much. We saw ourselves in them. They were our heroes and still are.

[@sirlink9611]

"Hey Butthead, where's Seattle?" "Eh huh huh huh, it's a place where stuff is like, really cool"

[@zdoggzero6595]

“Who do you you think would win in a fight? Plantman or Spoonman?” “Uhhhh I think Spoonman would win, cause he’s like, a bum, uhuhuhuh.”

[@p.d.l7023]

So very far away from where I am?

[@Notimportant253]

Seattle hasn’t been cool for a looong time. From what I remember it’s kind of a shithole now. An expensive, corporate run, trash filled shit hole.

[@bigdaddyvince1825]

Beavis: "Hey isn't seattle in Washington?" Butthead: "Yeah" beavis: "cuz I was thinking after this we can go see hole" butthead: "hole huhuhuh"

[@meganmcdonald7405]

Nuhvarna rules

[@krismiss2337]

Grunge died in the mainstream when Kurt took his own life,Aic unplugged was the last heartbeat.

[@veru6907]

'96 was the year grunge disappeared completely, left only maybe in our hearts

[@southernladyish]

Kurt leaving this world definitely affected the movement but it didn’t die until a few years after that. Also, “Soaked in Bleach” shows a lot of pretty compelling evidence that Kurt didn’t pull the trigger. Not to mention, the case has been reopened. Of course, everyone is entitled to believe what they want…

[@veru6907]

@@southernladyish when was it reopened?

[@robwalsh9843]

When Kurt died, grunge had already burned out. Soundgarden and Screaming Trees also had final hurrahs.

[@veru6907]

​@@robwalsh9843 let's put it that way pearl jam released an album in 1996 in which they changed their sound very much screaming trees released their last album soundgarden released their last album before hiatus alice released their last album and played their last concert before hiatus and layne's death stone temple pilots also left the typical "grunge sound" around 1995 when their Tiny Music came out i really think 1996 would be a clear point to draw when considering the complete death of grunge and its disappearance

[@dominicmaye5529]

I still listen to Nirvana, Alice in Chains and STP today. Grunge speaks for me and helped me cope with a lot of things in my life.

[@nolandavis2927]

All Of Them Are My Favorite Grunge bands I Listen To Them All The Time

[@erasmoag]

Man. I had been in Canada for 3 years when Nevermind was released and I bought it at an HMV. As a 15 year old immigrant with no identity and trying to find himself; everything about grunge spoke to me and helped me find an identity. When Kurt committed suicide I was devastated. He had such a reach and to this day is still embedded in music society. And to this day, my kids who I have been fortunate enough to give them what I could only dream of doing when I was their age are able to play all their songs on their instruments. Thanks for making great videos like this and educating the masses.

[@paranoizehfx]

So awesome! Check out our Music

[@danielstarr9037]

And I think AIC’s music has always felt the most real. When I saw my parents struggling with drugs and drama, AIC and Mad Season were like the soundtrack

[@mockingslur6945]

I miss the Layne Staley AIC. I’m sure the new stuff is okay, but I never could listen to it not knowing he wasn’t a part of it. I do know that they were mostly written by Jerry Cantrell, or he gets writing credit for most of their song’s.

[@uncletreytrey]

New stuff is fantastic. Black gives way to blue is just as emotional, just in a different way.

[@Logrowlf]

New Alice is really good, give them a listen some time if you can.

[@vladboch]

New Alice In Chains, especially Black Gives Way To Blue connected to me as deeply emotional, as their older stuff did. You just gotta give it a chance.

[@swatchcovers5401]

@@mockingslur6945 even the devil put dinosaurs here is pretty great.

[@JosephRivera588]

The “what killed (blank) genre?” And “how did (blank band) get so big?” series’s are my absolute favorite from you Finn! Keep up the good work, productivity is off the charts lately! 💪🏼

[@mr.greenbud7126]

Same 🤙

[@vitaflo]

I know this vid is a year old, but I wanted to say this is the best breakdown of grunge I've ever seen and it is 100% how I felt during the time. As a high school kid in the midwest at this time, everything you said is spot on.

[@debbiesmith1935]

Grunge will never be dead for me. Forever my favorite genre. (However, if anyone remembers this, to respect the wishes of all the great bands of the time, they wanted to be labeled as either new wave or alternative. Pretty much all the artists hated the term "grunge")

[@MoneyHammer]

Remember when the New York Times contacted Sub Pop to do an article about grunge slang and Sub Pop supplied them with a completely made-up list of grunge slang terms? Trolling before there was trolling!

[@Mraquanetchris]

Megan Jasper

[@toddprater14]

Was just thinking this...lol i remember that.... tripping the flippity flop

[@gx1tar1er]

To me, grunge was the last time that rock music took over the world (in the UK would be britpop). After 1997, rock became a really weird time in my opinion and rap, R&B, pop started to takeover rock.

[@mcanizares6861]

Emo definitely was the last though ending in the late 2000s rock hasnt been mainstream since

[@aaronmiles8286]

💯

[@LuciusGeronimo]

@Call Me, BLEGH Me, If You Wanna Reach Me facts.

[@honestalex5790]

The last of rock music being a big thing was that last big wave of scenecore music like bmth and stuff, like big warped tour bands. About after 2015 that wave started dying down and rock wasn't as heard of at all since then til recent lol. But in underground terms, the underground is still alive and never died so theres that ofc

[@MasonzeroDigitalWorks]

@Call Me, BLEGH Me, If You Wanna Reach Me I think you probably know what people mean when they say "emo", there's no need to be pedantic. I am aware of "real emo" but when I say "emo" to a normie they know I mean MCR and Fall Out Boy, even though all those bands are just pop-punk.

[@tacotruck7995]

Graduated in 93. Grunge was over before it begun but when it hit, it hit very hard. I remember getting in my buddies truck and he pulled out Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I was blown away and I was already wearing plaid flannels being from Minnesota. Then was at Lalapalooza 92.

[@deanwinchester3356]

In 1996 grunge was still around… it was just starting to transform INTO pop punk rock. 96-97 were very transitional stand alone years where new bands were coming in and completely took over completely by 1998. If you watch any movie or show grunge clothes in 1996 (Scream, Clueless, The Craft, Empire Records) grunge clothes was very in style and that music was in those movies too.

[@randyrussell2408]

I'm glad you talked about how much they plugged other bands that they liked. Kurt especially was really so generous about this, always talking to the press about the Breeders and Shonen Knife and TAD and the Raincoats and the Wipers and all these other bands while he was the biggest star in the world. It was really nice, and also super helpful for a teenager in Illinois who loved Nirvana and wanted to know about other bands. Music was really shitty back in '91 and being told by Kurt Cobain directly about the Pixies and the Melvins was a lifeline.

[@tonyohm2243]

Crazy to think that grunge had such a short life but is one of the most revered forms of music there is. At least in California, we have radio stations that are still dedicated to playing the stuff and you can’t go anywhere and not find a Pearl Jam fan. They were real, real people who talked about their very real problems and you got to watch them evolve or fall apart. That kind of music just hits different.

[@SketchEtcher]

Petal Jam Ten was soooooo good. To this day I’ve never felt an emotional charge from any music as much as from that album. Unfortunately, Pearl Jam never captured that intensity since then. I think there are two main reasons. First, the original singer died (heroin overdose), so they must’ve been deeply affected by that tragedy. Second, Eddie Vetter brought lyrics that he wrote as a troubled teen, and we all know those years are emotionally charged and can never be replicated. The combination was pure magic. The whole album is incredible. The closest thing to it I think is Temple of the Dog, but nothing Pearl Jam did afterwards interests me in the slightest.

[@sutusmihaly]

@@SketchEtcher ..I think, that pearl jam aged well..I liked the second one musically and lyrically more, although my first contact with pj was ten..and this had a huge impact on me..until today, they're one of my favourite rockbands..

[@KillforKickz]

@@SketchEtcher idk pearl jam was alright.. the voice of eddie vedder always kind of turned me off lol

[@newdamage5945]

Exactly. This stuff totally changed my life.

[@robwalsh9843]

We loved grunge when it first hit because it was a blend of punk, metal and hard rock that was performed by guys who knew how to write memorable songs.

[@Nomad5980]

Nutshell is one song that really gets me when I listen to it now. That song is basic Layne Staley crying for help and it's so sad that he never got any

[@nosyhobbit]

It's even more sad that his friends and family did try to help him, but in his last years he withdrew and did not accept help from anyone, even his bandmates.

[@tempest411]

@@nosyhobbit I don't get why anyone is allowed to refuse help that way. There was absolute proof he had a problem. There should've been some way to banish him to some rehab clinic on an otherwise deserted island from he'd not bee allowed to leave until proven clean for a few years at least. Tough love, but he'd be alive.

[@nosyhobbit]

@@tempest411 it would have been nice. At the end of the day though, you cannot take away another person's free will. The person has to be willing to accept help.

[@tempest411]

@@nosyhobbit At some point they are no longer able to make valid decisions concerning their well being. If you're even a little buzzed you are not considered qualified to drive a car safely, so it's reasonable that a drug addict is not qualified to conduct their own affairs in life.

[@galbulbul]

He got plenty of help, a lot of rehabs, therapies etc. He was just one of thoes hopeless cases: nothing was working for him or he wasn’t working on his self enough. yes, going clean demands work from addict.

[@ianthekirkland]

This is really great, man. So good to have someone educating the public on this.

[@TurboMan942]

I tend to think that bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers, REM, EMF, and Living Colour helped pave the way from a more mainstream perspective leading up to the release of Nevermind.

[@joeruiz4010]

Good take. They were very unorthodox, but, Nirvana was just so much different than any of the aforementioned bands you brought up.

[@willschafer5274]

It’s truly remarkable how much better so much of the Grunge stuff has held up than the Hair Metal that preceded it by just a couple of years.

[@ThePunkRockMBA]

Exactly

[@soulcrusher807]

Guess it depends what you thought of grunge in the first place. I never got into it and every once in a while go back and try but it just sounds dated to me.

[@DeadzoneMusic]

Aww come on. Hair Metal had wayyy more classic rock anthems than grunge. Not hating on grunge, but there's a reason hair metal lasted for 4x longer than grunge did

[@DeadzoneMusic]

@Soy Orbison I mean you can't say all hair metal is low quality... Def Leppard, GnR, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake are some of the most, if not THE most important and influential artists in rock history. And they are because of quality songs and exceptional musicianship. I get it if some people don't like Warrant or Firehouse (I love all of it, but not everyone's cup of tea), but dismissing that entire era that spawned the most prominent rock/metal bands in history is kinda silly.

[@ryanjacobson2508]

It depends on how you feel about an era. I personally dislike most of the pop culture of roughly 1992-1994 (the grunge era) so I'd rather listen to 80's metal (whether that's hair metal, thrash metal, or the many bands that were not quite either genre like Iron Maiden or Queensryche).

[@sandrosoler4275]

I remember Nirvana's last televised performance on MTV before that European tour when Kurt started having some serious health problems. Something was very off to me as Kurt smashed the In Utero angel statues with his guitar, spat on the camera lens, and made fun of the audience for clapping. Something was not right and I did not enjoy that performance.

[@theblob2k11]

MTV Live and Loud. One hell of a show, but yes Kurt was weird that night. There is also some backstage footage floating around where you can see Courtney looking for him after the show. He clearly didn't want to see her.

[@gessetticolorati7724]

decapitation was staged. Clapping wasn't.

[@rujzguppy2730]

Kurt tell his fans you're all stupid you pay me and you clapped 😅

[@Heisenberg882]

He was just making fun of the audience for mindlessly clapping at everything he did

[@nunyabiz2889]

That "clap, monkeys! Clap!" Moment was hilarious. I genuinely laughed when I saw that. But yeah, you're right. Something weird was going on.

[@steveserra6757]

good connection to how Grunge took aspects of Punk, Indie Rock and Heavy Metal into its collective and made something fresh. that's what rediscovering the sound is all about. Once the artist puts their own interpretation into the uncover you have the "New Sound".

[@kotorfan4033]

So this video definitely taught me a little something about myself. I always had a particular style and I never really knew where it came from being that I’m someone who doesn’t go out of my way to be part of pop culture. I kinda made up my own style (or so I thought) that made me feel like me, with the music I listened to. Come to find out that my style is basically just rebranded grunge and knowing that makes it so much more awesome to have it, so thank you for this video

[@robswystun2766]

I was like 15 or so when Nevermind hit big. To someone like me, who grew up in a small farming community in Saskatchewan, I didn't have anything in common with the spandex-clad hair bands who sang about screwing models and doing cocaine. But, I felt like I had tons in common with these normal looking dudes who came along and sang about feeling angry and confused all the time because that's how I felt as a teenager. And, I think that's a pretty universal language when it comes to teenagers. Smells Like Teen Spirit still takes me right back to that time.

[@snowrs1]

Exactly

[@VIGLounge]

This was a great take on Grunge. Some takeaways from this for me would be the commercialization of Grunge was a huge contributor to it's downfall along with the death of Kurt Cobain and the transition to Post-Grunge and I would argue that Pearl Jam was the earliest example of what Post-Grunge would become, Eddie Vedder is the inventor of what King Buzzo from the Melvins calls the yal (vocal style). I grew to truly appreciate Grunge starting in the early 2000s, as I was 4 in 1990, but albums like Nervermind, In Utero and Dirt helped me through some dark times as I was a kid who was bullied and battled depression (still struggle with depression now). Dirt was also very impactful for me as I was in college to become a Social Service Worker and the understanding and appreciation for Layne's expression of his struggle with addiction became all the more impactful to me.

[@VIGLounge]

@Soy Orbison Fair point. I do enjoy a few Pearl Jam songs so the yarl can be used to good effect, but bands like Lifehouse, the Calling etc. made the yarl a parody of itself.

[@soonerproud]

Technically, Alice in Chains hit it big over a year before Nirvana with Man in the Box off Facelift. They were already in heavy rotation on MTV in 1990 with Facelift hitting gold status prior to Nirvana's Nevermind release.

[@fkillah]

It was nirvana that blew the lid and changed the scene. Let’s not lie about it

[@soonerproud]

@@fkillah Why don't you google who had the first hit on MTV, Alice or Nirvana before calling someone a liar.

[@fkillah]

@@soonerproud first, calm down it’s called a figure of speech it’s the equivalent of saying let’s not kid ourselves. Secondly, you can tell me with a straight face that AIC is what caused grunge to explode? They certainly help se the table but let’s not kid ourselves about the influence of Nirvana here.

[@soonerproud]

@@fkillah Actually, The Melvins and Soundgarden opened the door for the grunge explosion. AIC stepped through that door (Thanks to Susan Silver, ex-wife of Chris Cornell and manager of both bands.) and broke on MTV over a full year before Nevermind was released. They got heavy rotation on Headbangers Ball and toured with Van Halen along with joining the Clash of the Titans tour as an opening act. While this was happening the members of Soundgarden were promoting Nirvana to the record company executives and helped get them signed to a major label. MTV decided to show the video "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on Alternative Nation late at night because of the success they had with Alice on Headbangers Ball. Nirvana's success didn't happen in a bubble. The doors were cracked open by others and Nirvana happened to be in the right place at the right time. Nirvana were huge fans of The Melvins and took a lot of inspiration from them. So yes, I can say with a straight face that in fact Alice helped cause grunge to explode. Nirvana got their break precisely because Alice opened that door for them.

[@fkillah]

@@soonerproud not arguing with you, they all played a huge role in setting the stage but I’m saying nirvana came in and hit it out the park and grunge broke out because of them. We are agreeing about the same thing but the emphasis is different.

[@Bmthdaf]

Grunge never died anyways because Nirvana have 21M monthly listeners on Spotify

[@val.ligator]

I spent my teenage years on tumblr in the early 2010s, whoever went through that phase during that time knows exactly what impact grunge still has to this day. Nirvana is still one of the most important gateway bands into alternative/rock music for kids nowadays, at least it was for me and people around me!

[@Analog_smog]

I also spent my later teens on tumblr during that time and I 100% agree. Tumblr helped introduce me to so many bands back then. It was really such a fun site to be on as a teenager in to any kind of alternative music.

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

Man I sure do wish I was on Tumblr in the early 2010s, even though I wasn't a teenager

[@ConwayChicago]

I flashed back hard to 'soft grunge' like I was in a war movie

[@aaronhurst4379]

So true, grunge influences were everywhere on there back then

[@thedeadelectrics]

"Rock got like 90% less douchey thanks to grunge and that's worth it to me" favorite part of this video hahaha

[@jadedheartsz]

a lot of grunge comes off as douchey to me with how whiny and self-absorbed it is.

[@vinyllpreviews9462]

@@jadedheartsz yes, I couldn't stand grunge stars complaining about fame, and their records selling and sound becoming commercial. Uh, it's pretty easy not to become famous and not sell records.

[@jimmym3352]

@@vinyllpreviews9462 I think Kurt was legit in his complaints. He made his next album sound like shit just to combat that. I give him props for that. That said, I do think they can be a bit pretentious in their supposedly rebelliousness. Their music was always clean enough to be on radio, so how rebellious was it really?

[@speedking7224]

@@jadedheartsz hit the nail on the head. Aside from soundgarden every band felt pretentious

[@jadedheartsz]

@@jimmym3352 Exactly, and people like Steve Albini have argued that Nirvana were never really truly Grunge.

[@seanmastergenral6134]

Don’t forget, Dave was originally from the DC area & Was actually the drummer in scream. He had actually flown from DC to Seattle to Trey out on drums for Nirvana, and when he saw the crowds there for a local band like Nirvana, he had only seen that before at a Fugazi concert. And for Dave to have come from one community to another was literally howundergrounds of punk and hard-core blended together for those backing influences in grunge.

[@bloomtv3-thealtchannel368]

in our circles here we find MBA good, always informative enough to get your own head going when the topic caught you interest - or had it already. On 'grunge' - MBA here inspires us to add the things that are rarely said - see what you think: 1. Industry established the word 'grunge' for one part maybe in lack of a better word - but cause each time there's something happening they need a name for it - to sell it. 2. In fact the 'Seattle big 4' standing for the word grunge - here in MBA's video too - were very different bands - musically, and from different backgrounds. 3. MBA's description of the overall music we though find good: punk, indie, and metal moved into the next decade - that is what those bands have in common. 4. If that is grunge - a step up and a merge of the earlier foundations just mentioned - then Babes In Toyland, L7, and many more were serious grunge bands of the time too. They never get mentioned in the context. Thanks MBA inserted footage of Babes In Toyland. Informative again. 5. Tragic though that the industry 'delivery packet'-word grunge puts all those artists in a .. 'packet - in a corner - where they can be consumed as such, and now be declared to be past - in a packet. They all were artists of the time. Africans in America built and invented what is our rock culture - Elvis, (Bob Dylan?), The Beatles, The Ramones/The Sex Pistols, and Nirvana were effective key-turner in 20th+21st century culture. 6. Nirvana in the corner of grunge might be misplaced, restraint. On of the many ongoing effects of Nirvana are Deftones, Slipknot, Korn, System Of A Down, .. , - Nirvana broke the stagnation - opened doors to new very wide imagination of artists - broke the barriers .. psychologically for everybody else who plays organic handmade music - then and since. They dissolved old rules with what they did, musicians suddenly felt they could do what they want - and it would just work. They still do. /

[@MelancholyRequiem]

You look exactly like Travis Barker and nothing like Travis Barker all at the same time.

[@needfoolthings]

...and a little like Travis Barker, too.

[@OliSpleen]

Jane’s Addiction were ahead of the curve for an eighties band as were Pixies and Sonic Youth. Although none of these were from Seattle I feel grunge would have been very different without them.

[@Christovsk]

I agree. Kurt definitely plugged Sonic Youth a few times as a band he looked up to, that was how I first listened to them, I think they toured together at one point too. Definitely Sonic Youth and Jane's Addiction were super important at that time because they were doing some of the more weird and arty stuff in the alternative scene.

[@OliSpleen]

@@Christovsk Kurt loved JA and the Pixies too, those three laid the groundwork IMO x

[@mianoel360]

yess totally

[@ronaldowens5025]

Never forget the Buthole Surfers and the song Pepper doesn't count. Electric Larry Land is a good album if you take out that song and everything before that is drug fueled gold.

[@OliSpleen]

@@ronaldowens5025 Butthole Surfers as a band were absolutely ahead of the curve and an influence on both Nirvana and Jane’s Addiction but the song Pepper was from 1996.

[@Incuensuocha]

Having grown up and lived through the grunge movement I think it’s quite simple what killed it, terrible second wave grunge bands. Bands like Bush and Creed came out playing crap songs with no originality and we quickly realized that bands outside of Seattle simply didn’t get it.

[@TenaciousSLG]

Completely agree!

[@spark300c]

I you nailed it. Good Grunge band only came form same sub culture that could not spread. So post grunge came which become the new hair metal.

[@robwalsh9843]

"we quickly realized that bands outside of Seattle simply didn’t get it." I agree that post-grunge/second wave grunge mostly sucked, but there were a lot of non-Seattle bands that could hold their own. Dinosaur Jr.(Amherst, Mass.) L7(Los Angeles), Babes In Toyland(Chicago), Stone Temple Pilots(San Diego), Nudeswirl(New Jersey), Paw(Kansas), Greta(Los Angeles), etc. But those bands didn't achieve anything like the success of Creed and Candlebox(who were actually from Seattle, but sucked)

[@Incuensuocha]

@@robwalsh9843 yeah, there were exceptions, but those exceptions stayed buried as far as radio play beneath the crappy second wave bands. As for Dinosaur Jr., they predated grunge and in my opinion released their best stuff before grunge ever hit.

[@Raven5563]

I was living and playing music in Seattle during the whole Grunge phenomenon, and I've always thought that the commercial feeding frenzy that occurred after Nirvana made it big turned folks into rapacious ghouls desperate to get their hands on the next "big thing"- and ride that wave. That scene was really kind of small town, and there was a certain camaraderie between all the musicians... I knew it was over when musicians started to screw each other over, when clubs started really screwing the musicians, and folks started acting like rockstars. I'm not sure the scene was ever supposed to become as vapid and self-agrandizing and money-chasing as what it replaced- LA Hair band culture, and I think that the collective of the scene fought that. Though, MTV's influence really did help destroy the scene, in the end. A lot of the death and destruction around the grunge scene might be attributed to putting an very organic art form into an extremely commercial ecosystem. Sorry, your video made me think about the old days....

[@moisesberducido1248]

You nailed bro!

[@SilentProti]

honestly, it's crazy that nirvana basically looks like mtv's baby, I guess more than half of their video footage we have is from them and well, it's a lot.

[@moisesberducido1248]

@@SilentProti Just remember, the problem wasn't the genere or the bands. The problem always was the commercial explotation and little care about the roots and true meaning of the grunge music. Kurt Cobain, for example, allways looks uneasy and a little nervous on the promotional videos and interviews. He clearly wasn't want to be there.

[@Bohdisattva326]

For me grunge has never died ✌️

[@dynamicphotography_]

Same here. "We show them that human spirit is still alive".

[@mateoatehortua3716]

Not just for you. Grunge has never died, nor will it ever!

[@skinnyjeens5521]

Sorry to hear that

[@OGGOAT23]

I listen to grunge every day for at least 10 years so it ain't dead for me lol

[@mell0wdem0n]

DAMN STRAIGHT 👊🏼

[@tomlewis4205]

At the time Nirvana broke, my best friend & I were generally known as "metalheads" but in truth we were always just looking for music that spoke to us, what genre was unimportant. For example, he loved Ice Cube & I loved Duran Duran. I rarely listen to Nirvana these days but those were awesome days back then.

[@jeffreyjrearheart6656]

Love your channel. I also grew up just north of Seattle. I lived through the grunge days. Also played in bands locally & was on top of the new scene. Im not so sure that your thoughts on what "killed grunge" are so accurate. Maybe on the billboards... But for many years after Kurt died... Even after Layne Staley died.... I would go to parties in the woods or at the lakes & even to this day Im still hearing Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, mudhoney even at Gen Z parties. So maybe by the billboard ratings... But everyone still got grunge on the daily playlist. Much love

[@comicalboxer8032]

I've never commented on any KZbin videos, but I loved this one. Your videos are both informative and interesting. Also entertaining (if you're a bit nerdy like me I suppose) Thank you for your hard work, it's appreciated here.

[@ThePunkRockMBA]

Thank you!

[@Scrinwaipwr]

"Hair metal was instantly irrelevant." Thank you, Nirvana, we are in your debt.

[@Scrinwaipwr]

@@SchopenhauerVsCamus I don't think one needs to be a snob to think hair metal is naff. LOL

[@GBTWC]

Grunge was hair metal

[@SchopenhauerVsCamus]

@@GBTWC Glam was Grunge Metal

[@horokai]

Word.

[@KnivingDispodia]

Hair Metal/ LA Glam might be the only sub genre of rock n roll that I hate all the way through. Hell even a few National Socialist hardcore songs have catchy riffs despite them being garbage. Hair metal is just watered down blues rock made in a paint by numbers fashion.

[@selfishstockton6123]

Grunge died when Kurt wore the grunge is dead shirt while holding Frances

[@bushleague3472]

The amount of people that took up playing an instrument as a result of the grunge movement is absolutely staggering. Kurt Cobain likely inspired more people to pick up a guitar and start a band than the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix, which is a massive legacy, and why Nirvana DNA still is still visible in rock music 30 years later.

[@realsciencerhythm]

Grunge is not dead. Not in my heart.

[@jetmac4790]

There's no one "Seattle Sound". Nirvana doesn't really sound like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains doesn't really sound like Soundgarden. It's all just hard rock from one area.

[@nu-metalfan2654]

@jetmac 47. Alice In Chains and Soundgarden do sound very similar, not only that but Gruntruck and My Sister’s Machine also sound very similar to Alice In Chains and Soundgarden.

[@kayceeyou]

This is very true but when it all came out at the same time, it sounded all the same.

[@jetmac4790]

@@kayceeyou I would also like to point out I wasn’t alive during that time (unfortunately), so my view might be different than someone’s who was

[@johnyoung5516]

Yeah I would say that they all actually sound different with AIC & Soundgarden sounding the most alike but Nirvana is more punky and PJ has a bit of a folksy side while AIC definitely is more metal

[@eldiablomanatee1]

​@@jetmac4790 I was there back in the day...either way meeh. If your interested check out a band called the Pixies if you haven't heard of em. Its a large part of where Nirvanas loud quiet loud style of music came from

[@Mark_Curtis]

Through the 80's I was all metal, yes, even hair metal, for the most part, but not long after I graduated high school in `87 I became kind of obsessed with grunge. Yeah, Nirvana was great, but for me it was AIC and Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and any of their side projects (Mother Love Bone, Mad Season, etc) STP came along and blew me away. I was so grateful to be able to see STP perform live shortly before Scott's passing. Other great bands I enjoyed were L7, Veruca Salt, Screaming Trees, Silver Chair, My Sisters Machine, etc. The music certainly defined the decade for me!

[@timothybaer6552]

Frogstomp is legit a totally under-rated album. They just hit a little late, I think.

[@MikeJohnson-ii7nq]

You missed noise rock

[@map3384]

Alice In Chains forever.

[@ambientnoiseaddict]

Meh, Mudhoney deserves more credit there than PJ.

[@Mark_Curtis]

@@ambientnoiseaddict You're kidding right? Alright then...

[@chrispian]

Great video. Grunge was and is still my favorite era of music. Like a lot of Gen-X it was the first time music reflected how I felt or how I saw the world. Kurt's death hit me hard. I was lucky enough to get to see some of the best grunge/alt bands around that time. I still wear my docs and grunge "costume" and I'm getting close to 50. You can pry it from my cold dead hands. This music is my DNA, it's who I am if you peel back all the bullshit. I didn't get the hate for STP and thankfully they took off in spite of it. There was a time when their first album was just not getting much play and I found their first tape in a bargain bin at a local record shop. A few months later and suddenly they were HUGE. One of the very best albums for alt/grunge for me was The Crow soundtrack. Captured the whole vibe in one album. I miss those days.

[@BobandWeave83]

I totally agree with you on STP…their music still stands the test of time

[@chrispian]

@@BobandWeave83 The crushed it on The Crow soundtrack. That soundtrack is a whole vibe itself!

[@matsfrommusic]

Man in a box and the Facelift album reached the shores of Sweden before grunge broke as I recall. I would have guessed about a year earlier but looking up the release dates it differs roughly only 6 months. AIC was just another cool rockband then and "became" grunge after the release of Smells like teen spirit. After seeing that video on MTV, you instantly knew it was going to be huge. It was quite the experience I have to say.

[@soonerproud]

A lot of revisionist history concerning Nirvana being the band to break open the Seattle scene. Soundgarden had the first major record deal and Alice In Chains were already successful, with Facelift already being gold when Nevermind came out.

[@JaFoste_Studio]

I feel like we're back in that era just before grunge. Feels like something big is about to happen.

[@countessratzass5408]

As long as writers write and players play a Big Bang happens. There is money. I live in Memphis which has had rockabilly, soul and rap explosions. Think of all the puke out there before those happened. There’s underground scenes where you’d never expect so I believe you’re correct.

[@karenc8028]

I was just thinking the same thing!

[@yaboinubtheii4154]

i'm hoping it isn't that mgk stuff... not my thing

[@OGGOAT23]

A TikTok video gonna blow up!

[@lihaniska87]

You got it right buddy check Niil,skating polly etc.

[@mikal16115]

They were all huge stars. And Eddie Vedder is the only one left Alive..

[@WMWMW0MWMWMW]

Everyone hates Courtney Love but she was part of that scene too, Hole was a great band, like it or not.

[@iHeartGasington]

@@WMWMW0MWMWMW hole kept me sane for like 6 months

[@scadoosh7928]

AWWW IIIIII OOOOOOOH IM STILL ALIVE YEAHHHHHH

[@Redtee1986]

@@WMWMW0MWMWMW so true, I feel like 90s folk hated her out of jealously of her ending up with Kurt

[@robertlangdon3086]

Cant forget the riff lord Cantrell

[@mikeleago1]

Wow! You are so on point! So many things to comment on… But just to keep it brief I was thinking before you even said it “What about Bombshelter videos?”

[@jasonmcalister5282]

I really like how you do your videos if you're not sure about something you just say it and not try and fake shit! So well done! Im now a follower!

[@thomascook5804]

Still love Grunge and I was a little kid when this hit. Guess that's why I was always into Alt Rock and still am.

[@roadrash2005]

Yeah I’m of the opinion that whatever music genre was big when you where a tween will shape your life tastes

[@erichofmeister521]

Kurt Cobain wearing a shirt that says “Grunge is Dead” ala Crass “Punk is Dead” holding his daughter in 92 says it all. Love your channel man, keep it coming.

[@AndrewLemmings]

Love this, I’ve always been a 90s and grunge fan, but this showed me some stuff, like certain commercial tactics that I never knew of. I just knew grunge was too marketable but didn’t know like in what way.

[@eloctavo1909]

The emo/pop punk goth, esthetic from like 2005, amrican idiot, my chemical romance, hot topic thing was also super co-opted by corporate america

[@ecoRfan]

The irony of the line “don’t want a nation under the new media” yet Green Day totally were. Then again it was more criticizing the media’s cheerleading for war and common people who fell for media manipulation. Doesn’t change they were part of the same media empire. Not bad music through.

[@KillforKickz]

we use to punk and bully on the emo kids back in the day lol

[@robwalsh9843]

Same thing with the psychedelic look back in the 60's and 70's.

[@KillforKickz]

@@robwalsh9843 i probably would of bullied them too lol

[@fenderman21guitar]

@Karina Sanchez odd that you put panic and the disco and linkin park in the same bracket tbh

[@Karnahl]

I wish something like grunge would happen again..

[@fawkkyutuu8851]

As long as our society continues to be as fake and conditioned as It Is nothing truly unique , raw , and real will ever break through again. Everyone wants to be like everyone else nowdays , and they'll do anything to fit In. The loudest ones and the ones who get propped up and marketed for nothing more than looks never have anything to say , and nobody cares It seems to work and be all you need so...

[@dankmemesdeaddreams2309]

One day... hopefully

[@riccardocossu9141]

Trust me, it will happen. The rap and pop game today is what hair metal was in the 80s. It is starting to become dinosaur music.

[@lukel9206]

great vid dude ! much love from Vic , BC

[@bryannaweigel9581]

STP’s Core has to be one of my favorite debut albums ever. Absolutely love it and fascinated with the band’s history. Pearl Jam, though, is my absolute favorite band ever.

[@bigbird7838]

Core was so bad ass !!!!!!!

[@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms]

STP is similar to both Pearl Jam and AiC heavily,no secret but I do still enjoy them.

[@Nacnud92]

I know that they’re more “grunge-adjacent”, but Smashing Pumpkins deserve some love as well.

[@northgeorgiahex6663]

I’ve always thought if SP was from Seattle they would be at the top of the grunge mountain. Possibly exceeding Nirvana. Maybe...

[@hannahbeanies8855]

They deserve so much love for sure

[@BellsCuriosityShop]

SP certainly checked as.many of the boxes as the likes of Soundgarden and possibly more than Pearl Jam

[@northgeorgiahex6663]

@@BellsCuriosityShop Agree. I love Pearl Jam a lot but I think you’re right - SP just felt more gloomy and well...for lack of...”grungey”

[@mockingslur6945]

@@northgeorgiahex6663 Smashing Pumpkin’s had their time. Let’s not kid ourselves.

[@MrFuckyouimbatman]

There is a bit of a fucked up poetic justice with how grunge advocated for authenticity yet became so unauthentic.

[@RobbieTayVaughan]

Dang, I really love Candlebox.

[@joeyjo-joshabadu9636]

Same thing that happened with punk.

[@robwalsh9843]

I make the distinction between the originators and the chasers. Grunge started with Green River, Soundgarden, The Melvins, Skin Yard and Malfunkshun as well as some other bands. Then along came Screaming Trees, Tad, Nirvana, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam. Then came the non-Seattle bands. Stone Temple Pilots got a lot of flack at first, but I think now they are recognized as being one of the best bands of the 90's. But when Candlebox, Silverchair and Seven Mary Three showed up things started to feel tired and banal. And when Creed blew up in the late 90's the original first and second waves of grunge were effectively dead by then.

[@coltsman2917]

I was a teenager in the 90s and didn’t care for grunge. But when i hit my 30s i started to listen to it all the time.

[@ninadeweese9430]

I was 13 the day Kurt died. And bro it was devastating. Me and my best friend Kelly mourned for days. We were the only two people at our small town school that even loved grunge. Nirvana was and still is amazing. Yet for me my ultimate has always been Alice In Chains. Period. Layne and Jerry had an amazing connection. And it’s irreplaceable. Alice has moved on and is doing good but it’s no Layne. His story is sad. But heroin took it’s toll on that era. But hey I was going to school at that time in a small town in Texas. And my parents always instilled amazing diverse music in my life. ❤

[@pong86r]

But for real, there’s a movie called “Hype!” And I 100% recommend it.

[@zombiesatemyfriend6282]

My favourite Grunge documentary.

[@reallyscaryrob2429]

Such a great documentary, I like how it really focused on a lot of the smaller acts like Crackerbash and Tad.

[@daviddr115111]

It's free to watch on tubi fyi

[@zombiesatemyfriend6282]

@@daviddr115111 I have the DVD.

[@pong86r]

@@zombiesatemyfriend6282 That’s fancy and I’m jealous! Mine is on a “hard to watch after all the years of watching” vhs tape

[@burnindownthehouse]

I remember the first year out of my years at college (1993) grunge had pretty much hit its peak but it was still going strong until Kurt Cobain's suicide. Then things tapered off. By the time of my senior year, you could tell that things had really changed because Korn was the most popular band with a lot of the students. Quite a big change.

[@johnwilliams8130]

Korn is just grunge with hip hop and funk influences

[@RealSaiyanGod]

Bro you’re so sick. I love your merch! I gotta get the Edgy Slogan Impact font deathcore shirt 😂😂

[@QuidQuoProductions]

Yeah, I worked at a record store when Kurt passed, and, yeah, I’ve seen dozens of those bands live (I’m going to see (the) Melvins, again, in May), and, yeah, I still love that music, but, WOW!! The Linda Lindas are SO GREAT! Seen them live twice, now, and watching them go from my friend’s daughter’s schoolmates, to where they are now, well, it’s nice to see and hear their grunge influence right there, get them where they are today…

[@BanjoSick]

Emo was commercialized as fast if not even faster. Harry Potter was emo in the Goblet of Fire!!!

[@elosoguapo8137]

I was in 11th grade in SoCal when Nirvana hit. It really was like an overnight change in many ways, but it was more like nirvana popped the cap off of a beer that had been shook up. AIC and Soundgarden were already in heavy rotation on FM radio and were getting played on MTV. Lollapalooza happened the summer prior and drew big crowds. There was clearly a market for the music, it just needed that one hit to bring it over and smells like teen spirit was that hit. What killed it is the same thing that ultimately kills everything. The industry got greedy and pushed a lot of crap on us that sounded similar and it got old and boring in a hurry.

[@johnwilliams8130]

Nothing killed grunge. Kurt went and the others either quit or changed styles. It was never officially ended by another genre. In fact you still hear the influence in rock to this very day. I don't think that it will ever truly go away. It just resonates with the human ear. I guess that's because it takes the best of rock, metal and punk and throws them in a blender. A little something for everyone.

[@DaveBoswell-lz3kc]

It went away. Good Riddance

[@BitterSweetUniverse]

Thanks for the Evansville Indiana shoutout!

[@danielstarr9037]

Grunge’s impact on the rock scene is super visible to me when I look at Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell’s friendship. I would say that both artists were at the ceiling of talent in their respective genre’s and were so close of friends that after Chris’s suicide, Chester took his life a couple months later on Chris’s birthday

[@toddwilliams8128]

Soundgarden still amazing after all these years... a good mix of metal. punk, classic rock, with splashes of prog and alternative... the musical equivalent of spicy turducken

[@joejones9520]

AIC's even better.

[@toddwilliams8128]

@@joejones9520 disagreed Soundgarden did a wider variety of songs. Musically, lyrically, and even philosophically. They even have songs that make you happy... An incredible concept in their era and genre. AIC did aome depressing songs and then decided to outdo themselves. Also, Jerry Cantrell overrated as a guitarist/ songwriter.

[@jdot223]

Yooo I’m from Evansville and too hear that call out caught me off guard 😂😂

[@paperchasepresents]

Just found this channel today and I'm on a binge, but shoutout to a fellow local! Didn't think Snohomish had any big KZbinrs haha

[@ThePunkRockMBA]

Thanks man!

[@lynchpig]

I live in Australia and the impact of the music and fashion was huge here. I was in high school and I remember where I was when I heard that Kurt Cobain was dead - it was that massive a deal to us. The ripples of those days still resonate with me and many of my friends.

[@galbulbul]

I live In Poland, and It was same here. Grunge culture was really strong here, although No band would even consider play a concert In our country back than. I guess we were Seattle of Europe XD

[@jeremyjamesdewitt]

Grunge was the greatest thing in the world to my 12-year-old self. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone out there. I grew up in a broken, dysfunctional home, and I related to those guys way more than Michael Jackson or Bon Jovi. A lot of my ideals came from the ideas those bands planted. The not-give-a-fuck attitude, the empathy towards others, and the us-against-the-world mindset. Still carry all of that with me today, in my 40s.

[@Phernaldo]

Dude, you really nailed it on this video. My GF and I always talk about how being a “poseur” “sellout “ were prob the worst things to be called in school/among your peers. Regarding Pearl Jam, I remember liking them, but they weren’t my go to, but I remember my friends and I viewed them as mainstream/corporate, which thinking about that mindset now is pretty ridiculous and funny.. but that’s how it was back in the day. Keep up the solid content.

[@belltown88squid28]

Right on Snohimish. I am from Oak Harbor, and graduated HS in 1988. Went to college in Ellensburg, WA. What a great time to be in and around Seattle.

[@CableB_]

If 90’s Nostalgia goes full swing then we could see a Grunge revival soon

[@BlastBeatBreakdown]

Another one?

[@caffeinated1432]

Another Prozac generation of suicides. Fuck that.

[@dorofeyev15]

@@BlastBeatBreakdown uiu

[@stevilkenevil9960]

It would never happen organically it wouldn't be the same. Personally I'm sick of the lack of innovation musically and also with movies its a product of looking at a phone for a generation

[@caffeinated1432]

@@stevilkenevil9960 It was just another fad.

[@karloswithak6823]

I know I'm being "legalistic" but Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were already making a name on the scene with Jesus Christ pose and Man in the box before Nirvana released Smells like teen spirit. However, Nirvana ate definitely the ones that blew it up.

[@wilhathaway1987]

You are correct! Nirvana is overrated AF

[@robwalsh9843]

Also, Tad's 1990 video for Wood Goblins was refused by MTV for being too ugly. Smells Like Teen Spirit blows up a year later.

[@1970mrchristo]

nice work, you summed that up perfectly

[@easttowest5984]

Man, I feel so old saying this but “grunge” was just this short amazing moment in time that you had to be there to understand. They were amazing talents first off. Gen X was sorta the forgotten generation of latchkey kids with divorcing parents. Girls were sick of being sexualized so throw on a flannel. These bands were honest in talking about those subjects and others. They were putting heart into it and speaking to their audience. For a lot of us, it helped us through. It’s really cool that kids today are kinda trying to steal our 90’s but who can blame them? And yes, Pearl Jam gets left out but they were definitely right behind Nirvana. These 4 bands were amazing but I gotta say Eddie was my favorite, especially as a songwriter.